King of the stage

INtake Thursday, March 2,2006
I MOVIES I =f HOME I MUSIC I NIGHTUft I Ut\l~l.
SATURDAY'S BEST BET
\
King of the stage
Indiana Repertory
Theatre features a
Shakespeare classic.
Dotage is tough for
kings with more ego
than sense.
The play that bears
his name shows King Lear
grasping to hold his world together after being manipulated
by two of his daughters and giving up his throne.
Like many of Shakespeare's
plays, the focus is power,
"The story itself is very relevant to our times," said Marc
Stuart Weitz, assistant director.
"It's about the abuse of power,
who has power and what gives
people power."
The play also tackles emotional issues as it shows what
happens to the king as he deals
with the aftermath of his decisions.
"It's also just a really personal story about a man who's
very old and has to deal with his
daughters," Weitz said. "He's a
king who abdicates in his own
lifetime and doesn't know who
he is anymore without everything he's ever been invested
in."
The play is not one of the
more commonly performed of
Shakespeare's plays, in part because of the complexity of the
production and the large number of characters.
Weitz said the IRT version
trims down some of the "pomp
and circumstance" to create
what he called a very lean production.
Another complication comes
from the text itself, which exists
in two versions.
"We've had to wrestle with
how to combine those versions
and tell the story in the clearest
way," Weitz said. "We've done a
lot of research and a lot of debating to figure out exactly
what is the story that's being
told and how to make that as interesting as possible."
The result, Weitz said, is a
play that's "like a laser beam,
very focused."
The cast, which was recruited primarily from New
York, is made up of some heavy
hitters in the Shakespearean
theatre realm, according to
Megan McKinney, IRT senior
marketing and public relations
manager.
"We try to get the best in the
country," she said.
— Traci Cumbay
Submitted photo by John Bragg
King Lear
Where: Indiana Repertory
Theatre, 140 W. Washington
St.
When: 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday, March 4. Various show
times through March 25.
Tickets: $24 to $49.
Info: (317) 635-5252,
www.indianarep.com.
"The story itself is very relevant to our times. It's about the abuse
of power, who has power and what gives people power." >

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INtake Thursday, March 2,2006
I MOVIES I =f HOME I MUSIC I NIGHTUft I Ut\l~l.
SATURDAY'S BEST BET
\
King of the stage
Indiana Repertory
Theatre features a
Shakespeare classic.
Dotage is tough for
kings with more ego
than sense.
The play that bears
his name shows King Lear
grasping to hold his world together after being manipulated
by two of his daughters and giving up his throne.
Like many of Shakespeare's
plays, the focus is power,
"The story itself is very relevant to our times," said Marc
Stuart Weitz, assistant director.
"It's about the abuse of power,
who has power and what gives
people power."
The play also tackles emotional issues as it shows what
happens to the king as he deals
with the aftermath of his decisions.
"It's also just a really personal story about a man who's
very old and has to deal with his
daughters," Weitz said. "He's a
king who abdicates in his own
lifetime and doesn't know who
he is anymore without everything he's ever been invested
in."
The play is not one of the
more commonly performed of
Shakespeare's plays, in part because of the complexity of the
production and the large number of characters.
Weitz said the IRT version
trims down some of the "pomp
and circumstance" to create
what he called a very lean production.
Another complication comes
from the text itself, which exists
in two versions.
"We've had to wrestle with
how to combine those versions
and tell the story in the clearest
way," Weitz said. "We've done a
lot of research and a lot of debating to figure out exactly
what is the story that's being
told and how to make that as interesting as possible."
The result, Weitz said, is a
play that's "like a laser beam,
very focused."
The cast, which was recruited primarily from New
York, is made up of some heavy
hitters in the Shakespearean
theatre realm, according to
Megan McKinney, IRT senior
marketing and public relations
manager.
"We try to get the best in the
country," she said.
— Traci Cumbay
Submitted photo by John Bragg
King Lear
Where: Indiana Repertory
Theatre, 140 W. Washington
St.
When: 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday, March 4. Various show
times through March 25.
Tickets: $24 to $49.
Info: (317) 635-5252,
www.indianarep.com.
"The story itself is very relevant to our times. It's about the abuse
of power, who has power and what gives people power." >